FYI- Orlando Conference

 

The 27th Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) will be held in Orlando, Florida from September 28-30, 2012. This event is sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org)

GRPC has traditionally been the place to meet national gun rights leaders and activists, to develop gun rights victory plans, and allow attendees a firsthand chance to hear movement leaders and make their voices heard.

There is no registration fee and attendees are only responsible for their own travel expenses (transport, food and lodging). Participants are invited to the no host receptions on Friday and Saturday evenings and a free lunch on Saturday. Each attendee will receive over $150 of books and materials at no charge. More information can be found on www.saf.org and www.thegunmag.com

With dozens of speakers, GRPC participants will examine critical issues such as: city gun bans, concealed carry, federal legislation, BATFE policies, gun show regulation, and state and local activity. The 2010 elections will be reviewed, the 2012 Presidential race discussed and recent and pending Right to Keep and Bear Arms cases will be analyzed.

These folks do GOOD work, and it’s worth your time if you can get there!!!

Are we there yet???

Overloaded with work, trying to get home, NOT real happy with the SCOTUS decisions this week…


THIS is all I can come up with…



Go read the folks on the sidebar, I’m sure ‘somebody’ out there has some humor up…

Posted in Meh

A different "take" on the SCOTUS decision…

Had ‘quite’ a discussion on this at the meeting this morning, and here’s a bit of a different take proposed…


I actually tend to believe this IS the longer term goal of SCOTUS, and that is to put this back in front of the voters…


Before you look to do harm to Chief Justice Roberts or his family, it’s important that you think carefully about the meaning – the true nature — of his ruling on Obama-care. The Left will shout that they won, that Obama-care was upheld and all the rest. Let them.

It will be a short-lived celebration.

Here’s what really occurred — payback. Yes, payback for Obama’s numerous, ill-advised and childish insults directed toward SCOTUS.

Chief Justice Roberts actually ruled the mandate, relative to the commerce clause, was unconstitutional. That’s how the Democrats got Obama-care going in the first place. This is critical. His ruling means Congress can’t compel American citizens to purchase anything. Ever. The notion is now officially and forever, unconstitutional. As it should be.


e.g. Commerce Clause is NOT applicable!

Next, he stated that, because Congress doesn’t have the ability to mandate, it must, to fund Obama-care, rely on its power to tax. Therefore, the mechanism that funds Obama-care is a tax. This is also critical. Recall back during the initial Obama-care battles, the Democrats called it a penalty, Republicans called it a tax. Democrats consistently soft sold it as a penalty. It went to vote as a penalty. Obama declared endlessly, that it was not a tax, it was a penalty. But when the Democrats argued in front of the Supreme Court, they said ‘hey, a penalty or a tax, either way’. So, Roberts gave them a tax. It is now the official law of the land — beyond word-play and silly shenanigans. Obama-care is funded by tax dollars. Democrats now must defend a tax increase to justify the Obama-care law.


It WAS and IS a Tax, plain and simple!  And the true cost is going to be HIGH!!! There is some BS out there that it will ‘only’ cost $95/person/year… Yeah, right…  MY employer provided insurance (which is good world wide) is $700/mo.  $95/yr ain’t gettin there…

And what about the 47% that DON’T pay taxes?  Who’s going to pay ‘their’ $95???
Finally, he struck down as unconstitutional, the Obama-care idea that the federal government can bully states into complying by yanking their existing medicaid funding. Liberals, through Obama-care, basically said to the states — ‘comply with Obama-care or we will stop existing funding.’ Roberts ruled that is a no-no. If a state takes the money, fine, the Feds can tell the state how to run a program, but if the state refuses money, the federal government can’t penalize the state by yanking other funding. Therefore, a state can decline to participate in Obama-care without penalty. This is obviously a serious problem. Are we going to have 10, 12, 25 states not participating in “national” health-care? Suddenly, it’s not national, is it?

Makes opt out a reality WITHOUT the administration being able to penalize them!!!

Ultimately, Roberts supported states rights by limiting the federal government’s coercive abilities. He ruled that the government can not force the people to purchase products or services under the commerce clause and he forced liberals to have to come clean and admit that Obama-care is funded by tax increases.

Although he didn’t guarantee Romney a win, he certainly did more than his part and should be applauded.


Hopefully!

And he did this without creating a civil war or having bricks thrown threw his windshield. Oh, and he’ll be home in time for dinner.

Brilliant.


Yep! 🙂

Sweeping Up…

Well, SCOTUS overturned the Stolen Valor Act because it ‘infringed’ on free speech… So lying about military service is now ‘protected’… WTFO??? Article HERE


AND they passed on hearing the Appeal to the 9th Circus on the Soledad Cross, so that is going back down to District Court…  Article HERE


And Congress voted to hold Holder in contempt, and the coverage is ‘interesting’… And the clowns showed up and did their “walkout” in protest, but it passed anyway…


CNN coverage HERE, NY Times HERE. LA Times HERE, and Fox HERE.  Interestingly enough, ONLY Fox mentions Brian Terry in their coverage.


I’m gonna go have a BIG Scotch and contemplate my navel for a while…

I "think" I pissed her off…

Went to dinner last night at an old shipmate’s house.  His wife is, to put it mildly, HIGH maintenance (and doesn’t like me anyway, since I was/am a BAD influence on hubby). She’s his second wife, and bless his heart, he’s put up with her for 20+ years…


What did I do???


We got to talking about disaster preparedness… Sigh…


They have a VERY nice boat, and ‘one’ plan was to get to the boat.



It’s a 54′ Hunter, nicely updated, and will hold all four of them (him, her, two late teens kids).


Soooo…  I was asking some ‘basic’ questions.  How much food is stored aboard?


NONE was her answer, it might spoil.  No canned food? No vienna sausages?  MRE’s? ANYTHING???  Nope not allowed… Spoilage!


Bottled water?  Nope, they ‘have’ water on the boat.  When I mentioned it was only about 130 gallons, well, THAT was plenty…


Is the boat fully gased up?  It only holds about 80 gal of fuel;  Don’t know, the kids had it out last weekend…


Um… Spare clothes?  Of course NOT, the clothes get moldy smelling on board…


So how are you going to coordinate getting everybody there, WITH everything they need?  Cell phones of course (looking at me like I’m an idiot); when I mentioned cells ‘usually’ don’t work in an emergency, she got up and stomped out…  


By the way, hubby NEVER got a word in edgewise in the above discussion!  As I was leaving, he told me he’ll take me out for a good dinner next time I’m in town (and without her there)…  And he’s going to stock the boat himself, in spite of her.  He and a couple of friends did sail it from California to here, so he does know how to sail on the big pond!


On the way back to the hotel, I came up behind a big (tractor/trailer style) dump truck. On the back was a BIG sign saying Drive Safely.  Carefully (more or less) lettered underneath was the following:


Hey bro dis mean YOU!  De kine breaks on dis ting ain’t dat good.


So I at least had a laugh out of last night…

Send in the Clowns…

Oh never mind, they’re already here…


It appears the ‘usual suspects’ are now marshaling their forces to protect Holder.  


Heard both on the news on the way in, and in side discussions that Rev. Jessah, Sharpton, et al are now hitting the media with the mantra than ANY attempt to censure/hold Holder in contempt is RACIST…


“Cause he’s done upheld the law just like the President wants him to…  The only reason they going after him is he’s BLACK.” 


Yeah, right…


How about the fact that DOJ (and Holder) has NOT responded to the committee for the documents, has made (at best) questionable calls on a number of race cases (Black Panthers, siccing the FBI on Zimmerman for a hate crime, NOT upholding/prosecuting other law violations)…  And where is that promised ‘transparency’???


Sigh…

And we’re funding DHS WHY???

It seems there is some ‘additional’ fallout from the SCOTUS decision that leaves part of the AZ immigration law in effect…


Yesterday after the decision was announced, DHS directed ICE to revoke their 287G agreement with Arizona.  What is 287G?


Well you can go HERE; but in a nutshell, it’s this-


The 287(g) program, one of ICE’s top partnership initiatives, allows a state and local law enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with ICE, under a joint Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), in order to receive delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions.


So effectively DHS will no longer accept any immigration enforcement actions from Arizona, e.g. if they DO stop illegals, rather than being able to call ICE, now unless they take the illegals and dump them on ICE’s doorstep (and maybe not even then) will ICE take the illegals for detention/deportation…


All I can say is WTFO???


Sigh…  WHY are these people determined to destroy the USA???

A little ‘humor’…

Today, the ACLU announced that they are entering a law suit against God.  Teaming with Amnesty International, the ACLU charges that the creation of Hell, by God, is “cruel and unusual punishment.”  The reasoning, a spokesperson for the ACLU claims, in this western Christian culture, one goes to hell for defying God.  If one feels they are destined for hell, because of their actions and beliefs, then one is compensable, before death, the spokesperson points out.  An eternity of one’s soul burning in hell is not equitable, the ACLU argues, to one’s defiance and / or denial of God.

Since one cannot enjoy any monetary compensation after death, and while burning in hell, the ACLU claims that it becomes the inherent responsibility of the Federal Government to provide equitable monetary compensation while the hellbound beneficiary is still alive, on this mortal earth, and living in the USA.

In a proposed settlement agreement, the ACLU and Amnesty International have delineated a process whereas anyone believing that they are going to burn and / or rot in hell for an eternity will receive an advance check from a new bureau with the USGOV known as the Dept. of Eminent and Voluntary Loss of Soul, or DEVLS, for short.

Since God cannot be compelled to actually pay a check to each unrepentent sinner (aka:  “U.S.”) the aforementioned bureau will provide a check ($) to any and all proclaimed beneficiaries.  They only need to report to the new Sin Security (SS) office and line up for a check.  The program, like the check, will be named:   “HELLFARE.”


Um… Aren’t we already basically doing this???

h/t JP

I "think" they’re making a mistake…

Just heard a report that the Syrians tried again to shoot down a Turkish airplane, this time a search and rescue aircraft, searching for the F-4 that was shot down Friday…

What’s really sad is I had to get this from the UK, NOT from US media… (Article HERE)

Bülent Arınç, the deputy prime minister, said the second plane had been attacked as it flew above the Mediterranean searching for two pilots. The claim undermines Damascus’s insistence that mistaken identity caused the attack on the first jet.

Turkey has called a meeting of the National Atlantic Council, Nato’s political steering body made up of ambassadors from member states, under the article four of the North Atlantic treaty, which allows any member to consult its allies whenever it believes “the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened”.

Now THIS is where it gets interesting, since the US is a member of the NAC… One wonders how the administration is going to handle this hot potato…

Changes in the Pentagon…

There has been a LOT of ‘change’ in the Pentagon but not much ‘hope’ under Obama…

From Fox, the following was written by JD Gordon.  The whole article is HERE

With the war over in Iraq and winding down in Afghanistan, some downsizing at the Pentagon was to be expected. But it’s much more than that. Take the half-a-trillion in programmed defense cuts over the next 10 years, combine this with another half-a-trillion from Obama’s deal with Congress, when the Supercommittee failed to reach agreement on our national debt, and you will see a hollowed out military like the one we saw during the 1970s.

Even Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, one of most influential Democrats in Washington over the past couple decades, described the Congressional sequestration cuts as, “a gun to their heads and to the heads of the country.” A total of 100,000 ground troops are being eliminated, ship and aircraft numbers are shrinking fast, and new weapons systems are being scrapped or delayed.

With America’s most sensitive secrets in cyber-warfare and counter-terrorism now routinely finding their way into breaking news alerts, even White House ally Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) called the leaks the “worst in a long time.”

From computer attacks on Iran’s nuclear program, to a foiled Al Qaeda plot to take down an airliner with a new and improved underwear bomb worn by a Saudi double agent, to painstaking details on the SEAL team raid that killed Usama Bin Laden, Team Obama has apparently sought to score political points at the expense of protecting the nation’s top covert operations.

3. The Pentagon is now detainee friendly

Though Obama couldn’t close Gitmo, the next best thing to that stated purposed was the decision to spend $750,000 in 2012 on a new soccer field for the detainees.

Meanwhile, within the president’s first 48 hours in office, he chose to ban all coercive interrogations – thereby depriving the military and intelligence community of an important tool in preventing potential mass-casualty terrorist attacks.

Never mind the fact that just a handful of the most dangerous detainees ever underwent any sort of harsh techniques out of the tens of thousands of enemy combatants captured in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe — why let reality get in the way of a good political talking point?

And what is the president’s creative solution to avoid the prospect of coercive interrogations for terror suspects still on the loose? Simple, just kill them all via a drone strike. We’ve recently learned that even US citizens overseas have been fair game for the “secret kill list.”

As of early June, there were 154 suicides in the military this year – an astonishing rate of roughly one per day. This staggering figure is on par with the number killed in combat in Afghanistan over the same period. Though some blame multiple deployments, the Pentagon dismisses that idea, noting that almost half of the victims had never been deployed to a combat zone. One message the Pentagon does emphasize is that getting help is a sign of strength, not weakness – while promoting a suicide prevention crisis line of 1-800-273-8255.

In an amazing first, Obama’s Defense Department will conduct a LGBT Pride Month event on Tuesday, June 26 at the Pentagon Auditorium, with a speech from DoD’s top lawyer Jeh Johnson and a panel discussion entitled, “The Value of Open Service and Diversity.”

With last year’s repeal of the Clinton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” policy gays can now serve openly in the military. That’s a major change at the Pentagon and in our military.
Amid all these ‘changes’, there has been NO reduction in the base operational requirements on the services, equipment is in bad shape/failing after 10 years of war, people in combat are now ‘afraid’ to shoot the bad guys, because some lawyer might come back later and charge them with murder, and the military has been forced into socially correct alignments that negatively impact not only unit moral but unit capabilities…
Having served when we were under Carter and remembering what we went through then; I can only say I TRULY appreciate those who continue to volunteer to serve today…